I just received a new Ameritron RCS-4L antenna remote switch and it looks pretty good. It works as advertised. Given mixed reviews, with many amateurs citing poor solder joints and early failures, I took mine apart to see how well it was made. I have to say that the hand soldered joints were well done and I saw no evidence of shoddy construction. The relays are self contained and operate quickly and reliably. The lightning protected model comes with four large MOVs soldered at the antenna terminals. I have only tested it on the bench, but it seems to be well made and functional.

I had the MFJ-4712 (2 antenna remote switch) and it worked fine so when I added a 3rd antenna I picked up the RCS-4. Been running 1kW on all bands, works fine. I dislike wall wart power supplies so I pick up a surplus 12VAC transformer and stuck it in the box -- there's plenty of room, and judging from the PCB layout the design was intended to accommodate an internal transformer. If you do the same, don't forget to fuse the primary and ground the box to station ground. Gave it a 4 because construction is, well, typical MFJ...

It works now for some 20 years. Now at 1.5KW and sometimes with SWR > 2:1. Sometimes at infinite SWR when an antenna breaks. I cursed it many times for not working, but subsequently always found a problem elsewhere.

Its port to port isolation is not ideal. Perhaps it would benefit from some adjustments to make less clicks than switching and make switching faster (for A/B comparisons). But for the price and only one cable, it is a steal.

If anything is wrong, the unit is very simple and fixing should take no time.

This product is absolute junk. The control unit was scuffed and dirty right out of the box. I had to take a cleaning rag to remove the foreign material on the case - and even then the paint was thin and uneven on the control unit.

Once the unit was installed, it quickly fried at 1000 watts to a resonant 80 meter vertical.

My RCS-4 switch box sits on the crest of a hill about 120 feet from the shack in the woods. It has performed well for the last 5 years. Each winter it is buried in the snow and so far has performed like it should. I am running 500 watts to it and it is switching an inverted L tuned for 160, and two Alpha Delta Dipoles.

Purchased new two months ago in July. Flipped the power switch last night the lights led's on the control unit flashed and went out. Both the included wall wart and the control unit are dead. Had to disconnect and run my antenna directly into the tuner to get a signal to the radio. Obviously something is wrong inside the control unit.

I've used one of these for years and now have two.
I used to have it up on the tower but went to separate cables down to the basement where I put the RCS-4. The only thing ever happened was the choke in the control head opened up and I replaced that. I use it for receive/transmit with an amplifier and it takes the power no problem. All antennas connected through the RCS-4 are tuned on other bands with line tuners so the switches have had to handle high SWR routinely--probably causing the choke failure. There might be something better but for 2 or 3 times the money they can keep it.

Used it for 2 years switching receive antennas; failed in the second season. Would activate position 2 and 4 only. Replacing the diodes did not fix it. I know other hams who used this unit and experienced early failure. Buy something better.

They sure save a lot of coax and while I was at 100 watts I had no complaint. After I got my amp I was tuning up and kabloowie. My fault maybe, but should be made for rough use too. Now I use a separate run of coax for each antenna and never a problem.